Ontario to bring back eye in the sky

Latest effort to crackdown on speeders is just a
way to get around reintroducing photo-radar system, critics say

KAREN HOWLETT

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

August 16, 2007 at 4:12 AM EDT

TORONTO — The Ontario
government is reintroducing airplane patrols of the province's
highways to crack down on speeding drivers. But critics say this
is just a way to get around bringing back the much-reviled photo
radar system the province scrapped back in 1995.

Premier
Dalton McGuinty announced yesterday that the government is
providing the Ontario Provincial Police with $2-million for an
airplane equipped with high-tech surveillance equipment and to
put 55 more officers on the roads to fight dangerous driving.

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino has been asking for a plane
so that police officers can spot speeding drivers the way they
did before their air force was grounded in 1981 as a
cost-cutting measure.

That won't happen this time, Mr. McGuinty vowed.

"We can't afford not to do it, given the extent of dangerous
speeding on our roads," he said.

The plane is among a flurry
of announcements Mr. McGuinty has made in recent days as he
prepares for the Oct. 10 provincial election.

Peter Kormos, New Democratic member of the legislature, said
the Premier was giving in to pressure from Commissioner Fantino,
who has said that speed was involved in one quarter of traffic
fatalities. He unsuccessfully lobbied for a helicopter when he
was Toronto police chief.

"Fantino wanted a plane. Dalton McGuinty got him one," Mr.
Kormos said. "It's the eye in the sky. The plane is photo radar
with wings."

Mr. Kormos questioned how effectively police could monitor
the province's highways with just one aircraft. "One plane is
going to be hard pressed to deal with thousands of kilometres of
heavily travelled highway, so let's not try to pretend that this
is any sort of panacea," he said.

Commissioner Fantino said the OPP will use the plane mainly
in provincial "hot spots." He said the focus will be on
dangerous drivers but not exclusively "high milers."

New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton has called for the
reintroduction of photo radar. Former NDP premier Bob Rae
launched a photo-radar system in the province in 1994. More than
240,000 tickets were handed out, with fines totalling more than
$16-million. But the venture was scrapped the next year by the
Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris, who said it did
little to reduce speeding. The McGuinty government abandoned the
idea of reintroducing the program in 2004.

Advocates, including the Canada Safety Council, argue that
photo radar helps prevent crashes and injuries. But critics
question its effectiveness because drivers are not pulled over,
and there are no demerit points, so insurance rates are
unaffected. Most photo-radar systems employ a speed gun that
trips a camera when an object moves past it at above a set
speed. Tickets are issued to the car's owner, not the driver at
the time of the alleged speeding.

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa, Canada)
wrote: Julian Fantino wants an addition to his Air Force at the cost of
millions of dollars in capital investment. Back in 1988 I recall doing airborne
highway patrol for the RCMP, the cost, $150 per hour to rent a Cessna 172 pilot
included and one police officer on board with a clipboard, a stopwatch and a
radio. Usually there was one or more police cars to intercept on the ground.
Typically we never waited more than 10 minutes for serious speeder to show up.
For almost every hour of flight time there was one speeder doing around 160
kilometers an hour. The fines issued were thousands of dollars per hour and the
white speed lines painted on rarely used roads had the potential to generate
millions of dollars over the years. Julian Fantino has a long history of seeking
personal publicity and political point scoring not to mention finding innovative
ways of soaking up ever increasing amounts of pubic money all in the name of law
and order which is again used to build up a piggy bank and army of increasing
political support that is deposited on an ever increasing revolving wheel
destined to become only bigger larger and more powerful until the public wakes
up to the hidden nightmare and his personal potential to gain power based on
power rather than political merit. www.OttawaMensCentre.com 613-797-3237